Unlocking Success: Lessons from a Self-Proclaimed Idea Leech

Welcome to Profit Sharing in the Real World.

I'm your host, Danny Murphy. This podcast features commentary from Dick Erickson, founder of Suntire North Florida, and author of the book, Profit Sharing in the Real World, which is available at amazon.com. In today's episode, Dick is going to tell us what it was like to be known as an idea leech. Dick, what was that leech? How did that come about? Well, when I first heard it, I said, is this one of my friends who knew me well enough to make the comment, I guess?

Was he picking on me or was this kind of in jest or what? But he was serious. And he had made the announcement to a business group I was in. I don't know how my name, all of a sudden he said something about me. And he did to have a few words on what I did that day. And he said, by the way, he is an idea leech. And I thought, I never heard that about me. I knew what an idealist could be, it should be.

So that's how it got started. And then as I got into it, I started looking to my past and realized so many of my ideas came from other people. Now, if that's the case, then I started realizing, how do I get to know people enough that they'll share their ideas if I find their ideas interesting and could be helpful to me or sometimes just I'd like an explanation. It sounds unique enough. I'd like to hear more about that idea.

And so that's what got me going. And then I learned a few little different things for people to be comfortable enough to share with me. Now, this is part of your tradition. You came out of North Dakota, and you learned how to drive caterpillars as a teenager. And you did that by watching what the other guys were doing. And then when somebody came up to you one day and asked, can you drive a caterpillar?

Sure. Tell me about that. Well, that was so interesting because I was on a road construction job, And one of the basic things, other than pounded posts or little markers for the heavy equipment to build the road with, well, it's the most basic. And then if you moved up, you got to drive a vehicle or something. I was driving a water truck. And the guy that was pulling the Packer with a Caterpillar showed up for the second or third time late one morning.

And the boss looked around and said, who can run a Caterpillar? And I put my hand up. I had never ridden, never in my life, but I had observed what was going on. And I had learned how to track those and stuff that had auxiliary motors, which just had to start the big motor. Anyhow, not to get too far into it. So I jumped up there and got that thing going and started down the road pulling that Packer.

And it was, and I didn't, I knew that you had to pull things, you know, didn't have a steering wheel. But by observing and then to take the chance, because I was really out, I was pushing the envelope a little bit to say that I could run. But it worked out. But the point is, was to learn from someone else. And so when I'd watch them go by me on, was what were they doing?

How did they start that track? And I found out there's some similarities to what I was doing when I learned how to drive tractors to what a Caterpillar is. A little different steering mechanism, stuff like that. Yeah. So I think that was kind of something early in my life. I was just, I was just graduating from high school when I had that experience. And then as I got into things, you know, it was even I got into pilots training.

You know, I had to still learn from people. They were teaching us this. I'll give you a book, but to hear somebody say it sometimes and you can ask questions to kind of clarify the thoughts, which you can't do from a book sometimes. You know, you read it and say, yeah. So that's how you also learned how to fly helicopters in the Marine Corps. Right. Right. And that was quite different than a fixed-wing aircraft, I found out. And I was told that.

And things were slower than flying a jet, needless to say, of how fast you had to respond to certain things. But then there was something. But it was very, a little more, I would say, a little more complicated between your feet and what you're dealing with in your hands. Yeah. So all that background, as I found out later, really helped me become someone who could deal with machinery, airplanes and stuff probably better. But I had learned that at a younger age.

Yeah. And you were learning about how things operated, the way things happened, the way people did things. Yes. Yes. And open to asking questions. Now, remember, to ask questions sometimes, you're showing that you might be a little ignorant. And if that's a problem, then that becomes something that prevents you becoming someone who can learn from others because you can be too proud.

As I was told by one of my close friends once, if you can figure it out, Dick, so can I. I had to tell him later after he had more problems that, listen, I didn't figure it out on my own. I figured it out through someone else. I was trying to share that idea with you, and you shut me out. So when you got out of the Marine Corps, finished your stint, you went back to college, finished your degree, and then you got into the tire

business, where you really started observing how a business is run. Yes. Yes. And the thing about it, too, when you start seeing, and I had to figure out, so, you know, people talk about starting a business, and the point is, is what is the issue here?

Well i say the first thing in my mind i had to learn how do i get traffic how do i get people to come to my place of business how do i get them to call me or something like this so that was a deal but i learned that from other people when i'd watch someone that was busy hey that's a guy i could talk to maybe how do you how do you get all this business didn't have to be the tire business, but he might have been he was in the cleaning business he cleaned clothing you know things of this sort

and what he did and when i found out from you know different ideas i found that how important really the whole deal of business is about people how do you deal with people how do i develop a deal that they can trust me when they talk to me and sometimes they don't want me to spread it around they want to share the the idea with me but they don't want the whole world to know because it's kind of proprietary that it's it's what makes them unique.

And if I could, and so sometimes I had to get out of my competitive zone or area where I was working into another town or place like that to ask some of the questions to enhance my business. So I wasn't competing with the person who was giving me his thoughts and success traits. So you got into business and the tire business, you got into Big Ten in Florida.

Yeah. And you had a great mentor. Yes, I did. Three brothers started this year back in the 50s. And I joined them in 71 or something like that. Let's see. No, the summer of 70. And yeah, so I got into that. And I worked in a filling station in high school my last year in the evenings and the weekends. And so I knew something about changing tires and changing oil and stuff like that. But anyhow, they had to change the tire stores. I think when I started with them, they had 16.

And so I got a chance. And then within that, within our own group, I found out some guys are better than others. Okay, what were they doing that makes them better? Well, I got it there in a better part of town. Then I'd see that they could be in a bad part of town or a tougher part of town, maybe due to income levels or whatever. And they had a going operation. People were attracted to that store. What was that? What was the difference?

So to me, it was always trying to, because I didn't want to be just average at something. I did want to excel. I don't think that's anything wrong with that. I didn't have to beat you, but I wanted to know why you were beating me. Does that make sense? That makes sense, yeah.

Yeah. So Big Ten. And then by the 80s, you started off in Orange Park with your own store. You said, you know, I'm done working for other people. I want to build my own business. I did. And one of the reasons for that was, again, was I felt they could have kept growing in a little more. Some of the ideas seem to be missing in that company. And I'm not trying to put them down. And I thought, well, it's one of those either shut up or put up.

I thought, well, it's time to put up. I need to branch out. If I can figure out how to finance. So I was watching my pennies and stuff and trying to accumulate some money. So we came here in 81 and opened our first store, knowing one person in a whole community of a million people, whatever we got here in the greater Jacksonville area. And we developed nine stores here. And the last year we're here between our two entire, we sold 100,000 tires to the retail customers.

So that I tell you that to only say it was somewhat of a feat, but I didn't, it wasn't that it was unique, this that I brought to the table. It was picking up ideas along those first 10 years. I learned a lot about the tire business. Although I also realized when I got on my own, I only knew about 80% of it. I had to make some mistakes, reach out, and at times I was looking for that company that I could go get some ideas from, and that showed up later in the Les Schwab part of my career.

Now, you talk about getting ideas from other businesses, and you had relationships with some of your competitors, not all of them, but you had a relationship with the owner of Big Chief.

Yeah. And you would visit there, and while you were there, you'd have a cup of coffee or whatever, and you would observe as much as you could about what they were doing. Yes. Well, it was, because if I'd go and observe a dry cleaning place, which I brought up earlier, that only brings so much. That showed me maybe how we talked to somebody, but to get into a tire company, and I didn't know that many from outside of the area yet.

So I had to kind of try to figure out some local folks who might talk to me. So I went in with a hat in my hand and developed a relationship with them and never talked or bragged about anything I was doing so much as a fellow tire person just came by to say hi. And that was really my whole deal. And of course, it would be human to observe what was going on. And, of course, I tried to find folks that were busier than I, you know, to go see.

Yeah. And you would drive by the competitors and just watch occasionally. You would drive by the competitor's store, be it Big Chief or Discount or Tire Kingdom, whatever, you know, just to see how they were operating in case you could get any good ideas from what you saw.

That's right. and it to me it'd be a waste of time to drive by the tire store that wasn't doing anything i know what you know other than is he keeping it clean or some things like that so so that's what i was trying to because i as my arsenal using that expression of things that i had learned and then i'd walk in and say okay is there something beyond what i'm doing that they're doing that i should be doing?

How do I? So I had to be real careful about that to develop a relationship when you're trying to get that. And whether, but especially at local people at a local deal and you could be a competitor to them. Are not going to share too much, understandably. But you can park across the street and watch. That's right. And I had that happen to me one time. We got our store going in Orange Park, our first store.

And it's Saturday, and I look across the street, and there's a van parked in the restaurant parking area over there, right across from the office, and more people would drive in. And so they weren't blocking the spot over there, but that was kind of a spot. And he had his back, he had his van door open, and it was sitting in a chair watching us. And I kept looking over there, and I said, what is he doing? And I finally walked across in a non, you know, just friendly way.

And I said, hi, and I introduced myself, and I think I saw that he was from out of town. He wasn't a local guy. Georgia, right? Huh? Georgia. So I saw the Georgia Plakes, I guess it wasn't. And so I said, how are you doing? And I was trying to find out what he was doing without being too like, what are you staring across the street for? And he said, well, I've heard about your company. If you don't mind. And I said, no. I mean, he said, so I'm just observing what

you're doing. Man, you guys are selling a lot of tires. And, of course, we had a methodology, bring them in. One guy all had particular jobs that I had learned from others. So, yes. So, that happened, started, and I started to realize, well, maybe we were coming along in a direction I wanted to be, but I didn't want it so much. And the numbers will tell you that. Were we grown? We were. But it was keeping our ego intact and trying to learn more from others.

It's funny. So you went from being the observer to being the observed. Yes. That's so funny.

Let's talk a little bit about how you got into observing Les Schwab Tire. You read about them in the business literature, found out they were making 15%, whereas most were making, in the tire business, making 8% or so. Tell me about that. The numbers you brought out, I learned down the road with them. I didn't know that from the beginning, but I heard that these folks were over the top.

They in their market areas they were the they were the top tire company and they were on the west coast which is on a completely other side of the united states for me and so i called out to to them and asked if if i if it would be all right for me to come out and visit them thinking that was a nice neighborly thing i'm well you could have got a van and parked across the street that's right. And instead, you know, so I got the gatekeeper, if you will,

the lady that answered the phone. And I was quite upfront with her. One of my colleagues come out and visit her, hearing great things about him, said the nice things that felt that were appropriate. And she shut me down nicely.

She said, Mr. Erickson, we have people calling us every day, wanting to visit us and we just don't have the time we don't have a way to deal with that and so she kind of shut me down so I had to rethink and I thought no I got to figure out how to get out there it was a company that you wanted to observe amen I knew in my mind of all my entire experience up that they were the ones I heard the most about and I said I got to find out But from my own experience, what is going on?

Is there some truth to this? Are they doing it the way it should be? Is this an ethical business? I really didn't know. And that might be a tough question.

Thing to say but the point is what i did then is i ended up in a buying group where we bought tires that we brought into our place and they happened to be in that same organization they were buying tires from that same company that wholesale group and so i too learned when you're when you're trying to how to get close someone i found out one of the guys in that company was a former marine and he happened to be at that meeting so i used that as i moved up to the bar that night next

to him and said brought up the brain core and that kind of gave us a starting point and then slowly got into clock entire business and within a meeting or two i got an invite to come out and see them now did i react to that pretty quick you know yes maybe like the next day not quite that quick, but yeah. So you visited Les Schwab Tire for the first time. What happened there? Well, as soon as I saw it, I could sense, I went out there, but what we do is to run my own business the way it had to be.

I want to take some of my guys with me, some of my top operators to see if they could observe something that would help them within our company. So we would be, the plane left at four in the afternoon. And so they, Saturday's the biggest day of the week. We knew that. So I wouldn't let them leave their store till early afternoon, get changed, be at the airport at four and we're heading to Portland, Oregon.

Now three time zones away, we got in there early enough to have a Coca-Cola at 10 o'clock or whatever we had. Anyhow, the point is then we had Sunday to kind of do it. And then Monday, we hit this, tried to find their best store and started off there. And so, yes, we started that and did that for 19 successive years. And it was at least one visit a year. And what I found is that I would come back with an idea to that would take me a period of time to get implemented in my company.

And that's another story about how quick you take new ideas and implement them. You really got to think through you can't. I just about cannibalized my own company to change to their deal. And that's, again, like I said, it might be a different story or another message on that. But so anyhow, over the years, I slowly learned their program. And people would say 19 years. I mean, but there was about a year between the visits and so.

I did, and over the years, it was that. I remember taking one of my key folks with me one time, and when we kind of faced, he kind of shook his head. He said, Mr. Erickson, you don't expect us to do this level of service, do you? And I thought, oh, my goodness, he's being intimidated. I didn't bring him out here to be intimidated. I came out here to learn. I said, listen, those are young men just like you.

And, yeah, we got to learn from these guys. So I realized even I kind of had to prep my guys for what they were getting into. You know, this is high-powered organization. But basically what we did, but they were just human beings like us, too. And they were very energetic. They would meet people at the car. That was one of the first things you noticed was that Les Schwab tire, tire changers, mechanics, whatever. By the time the customer pulled into the parking lot and got out of his car,

there was somebody waiting to say hello. It was usually before he even got out of the car. And so, and I heard this just recently in a new part of the United States where they got a new story and I happened to know some people in that community. And the first thing out of their mouth when he told me about it, they said, you're not going to believe this, Dick, but these people were standing beside my door when I pulled up.

I said, it made me feel good that they still had the disciplines that got them there are still being done. And that's something we talked about before is, you know, the customer service aspect of that in particular, that, you know, people go into a tire place or an auto service place. They, a lot of times they're skeptical. They're a little scared, you know, because they know they're going to be spending some money.

They just don't know how much. and to have somebody walk up to the car and be a friend. Yeah. Tell me about that. What a way to start off the whole experience. Because I can tell you, most of the consumers in the industry, the tire industry, don't know a lot about their vehicle. Understandably, it's a complicated thing, and it's getting more complicated. So the point is, so any way that you can start off the deal right. And in my leeching, if you will, of ideas, that became the initial deal.

But to be honest with you, one of the hardest things I try to do is get a system and discipline that every customer was greeted at the car. That was a toughie, especially when you're trying to watch how big your crews are and stuff like that. But that getting whatever it takes to make the customer come in without a chip on their shoulder for good reasons of something in the past or something they heard about the industry that was negative is to get it started on a positive note.

And there's numerous things I found that were visual things. Well, the cleanliness of the place that they pulled into where the parking spots marked. How are they doing that? Everything you did, you wanted to make it simple for them to get into your place, ask the questions. Bathroom's clean. Different things are just things that got to happen. There was another idea that you copied from Les Schwab, and it had to do with popcorn. Tell me about that.

Well, yeah. So they had popcorn and coffee at all the stores. And I thought, now, popcorn, how many places? I don't know of hardly anyone that would have free popcorn. And you go fill it up yourself although as they get free they'd go and fill up some bags so all you had to do is reach in and pull one out of the heated area well what i realized more as much as having something for the customer to munch on while they're it took away the smell of tires.

Because a lot of times you have tires in the showroom for customers and all that So they were beyond just giving you something. They were also concerned about the smell of their product, of their showrooms and stuff like that. So that issue was to keep that. One of the jobs in running a store for us, when you showed up in the morning, one of the things for the customer, that you had made your popcorn. And the coffee was, we had both decaf and cap.

One place you go, and it's just one. Well, it can't be that much, especially to have one of both. And I think my wife was decafant, so tried to follow through on some people that I knew were decafant. So trying to figure that out. So as I'd watch from watching other people do it, why couldn't we? That's the challenge, too, when you get an idea from someone. What are the disciplines to do that every day if you take it on?

Okay, and you got one other really big idea out of Les Schwab, and it was the one that really made a difference for Les Schwab Tire and for Sun Tire for you. Tell me about that. I can think of 100. I don't know which one. I'm talking about, okay, let's start it. Yeah. Okay, there was one big idea that you got out of Les Schwab.

The biggest idea you got out of Les Schwab Tire was their profit-sharing plan. Yes. And that's what you used to build Sun Tire into a very successful business. Tell me about that. Well, it really was because I'd see this stuff happening. And I had not, Danny, ever seen a business operate like theirs was because I couldn't even figure out who the manager was when they were busy.

That manager was in the system of running that store for the customer, getting the customer in and out in a timely manner.

And so he would i'd see the manager after i figured out who it was would fit into the where a gap was okay i'll take that for a while and then come back out when things are slowed down or something but the point was and how do what what gives these folks that extra extra get up and go what is it and then the more closer i got i started realizing they had a profit sharing program and then golly profit sharing yeah and they had a retirement plan their hours

were as long as anybody there wasn't a shortened it wasn't that we weren't there there was one company starting california four-day tire store it didn't last four days in an entire business isn't going to make it on a on a weekly basis the customers have greater needs than that so anyhow yeah the profit sharing so these guys and then i realized that well as in so many companies in the world today it's it's the key folks starting on the top and you move

down a few levels and then the profit sharing stops other than you know you try to do things for everybody and then the really the, high number of folks are sitting there without a whole lot going for either and out of their profit sharing, I realized what they got, it included a retirement plan and a cash bonus that came depending on where you were in the work spots. The tire changers got theirs on a. At least we developed into it from there's a monthly deal.

Management, some got quarterly, and some of the bigger got at the end of the year. Of course, they're sizable more because it was held for a whole year. So, yeah, profit sharing. And then I realized it was the most unique profit sharing I had ever seen. And they were maxing out their retirement plan, which back then I think is possible. That lets you take 15% of the employee's income towards retirement plan, and you could expense that.

And most companies have 3%. You put up 3%, I'll put up 3%, 4%, 4%, or whatever. Theirs was being maxed out. They were hitting the government regulations. 15% of their income was going into that retirement plan.

Retirement and on top of that they still had cash bonus and that wasn't out of their income that was in addition in addition and you built your program the same way yeah yes so when i got going and time we had sold that we had we're up to eight percent of the employees and in the local area that would put it up with just about anybody and there wasn't many that i knew and i don't know of any on top of head right now, but I did run into somebody that had a fairly high percent of the employee's

income that was matched towards retirement. So Suntire had deferred income in the form of a 401k and also cash bonuses, which were periodic at the end of the month for hourly employees, quarterly for others, and then annually for the top guys. Yes. And that is referred to as a hybrid plan. It is, if for no other reason. And that's why part of the 19 years was to figure out how to do that.

How do I do, you know, even like the employees, how do I, when you say I'm going to give a profit sharing and I've worked with some companies since I've retired and one happened to be a nonprofit. It was hard to know when your income is done by people giving you money for nonprofit to help nonprofits, but knowing that money might be up and down, up and down. How do I take care of employees with an up and down, up and down source of revenue?

And I never quite got my arms around that. And there's ways of doing that, I know. But anyhow, that was a big issue of trying to get it down. And we found part of the hourly people's bonus, cash bonus, was tied to their longevity, not just their position. And if you're considering the higher level, meaning five years or more, your bonus, that was the max bonus you could get from the group. And if you're one year, it was one unit, two units from two to five, and then five, you're a three.

If you're a more specialized hourly person that made a higher hourly pay, the person, that tire changer that had five years for his bonus might get you a bigger monthly bonus than the guy with the higher wage as far as his hourly. So you had a program that kept people motivated year round. Energized, and that paid off in the form of customer service, longevity, loyalty. Tell me about that. Well, you know, first of all, picking employees is practically an art in itself.

And I've surely made a lot of mistakes there. And there could be great employees in other professions, but ours, we had to really figure out what is necessary from a human being to take care of the customer. First of all, it had no aversions to getting your hands dirty, a few things like that. And some people, that is a problem. I'm not picking on it.

So we found that getting regular customers who enjoyed working with what they did, and then as they started realizing that their extra bonus in this whole thing was return customers, happy customers, all that.

So they started policing themselves. you didn't need and it really slimmed on our our needs and in our people because we didn't need middle management once these guys knew their job they didn't need someone standing around who's smoking a cigarette out there overseeing them doing a job that they needed they knew how to do and if they if they weren't doing it consistently it's the wrong person in the job get someone in there that still has to be.

We might rotate them through certain jobs every four hours. They might move to a different on front there so they didn't get worn out doing just one thing.

So profit sharing really paid off in a lot of ways. One of them was customer service. Another one had to do with shrinkage. Tell me about that. Well, you know, it's human in certain things and businesses that, you know, People say, yeah, I had shrinkage. I don't know where it happened, but we lost some product or something. Some people may not. Shrinkage is when a business loses product or whatever due to employee theft. Yes. Yes. So get to the point. Good point.

So when that tire, if that left and wasn't paid for, that was actually part of their bonus plan and left. So pretty soon, they became on the front. Anything that moved out there, they're observing. Because it could affect their profit share. That's right. All of a sudden, he started realizing that honesty was such a big issue in this type of environment that they would watch for anything at all. Not to throw away anything as far as the wheelways. A lot of wheel weights can be used over and over.

And instead of throwing them in a bucket, you throw them in the bucket that's saying, hey, this looks like a good wheel weight that we can reuse again. And it was completely safe in the way it should be for the customer. So the little things that went on that was driven by the profit sharing a lot.

I hate to overly make it that everything's about dollars and cents, But I think anyone who works hard, if they feel like they could have something extra for that, it made them zero in on those sort of things. And so how the customers treated, how we met time, we told them at 2 o'clock, let's get it done at 2 o'clock. We told them it was going to be $500. It isn't $510. It's $500. So everything we did was anything that could be negative to the customer to eliminate those sort of things.

So we talked about shrinkage and the fact that, so you once had a mechanic who called you and asked about the profit sharing plan. How did that go? He was a former employee from the past that had come back in. And by that, we had now initiated this profit sharing plan, which he, we didn't have when he was with first time. Anyhow, he'd been in a short amount of time and I got a call from him.

He knew me from the past, so he knew me personally and said, Mr. Erickson, I want you to reaffirm me that we do have a profit sharing, right? He had not been there that long to have gotten his first check on this. I said, we do? And he said, well, we got a problem in this store. And I said, what's that? The manager is stealing. And I'm going, this is one of my better shops. And I'm going, what's going on? Well, what happened, he was observing and the manager had some sort of, it was over drugs.

So the guy was coming in and he would give him free tires for what he did with the drugs. I'm not sure, although we did check the next week, everyone had a drug test and I included myself, which I would do anytime I requested. Personally. I'd take a drug test with him. And sure enough, the person in the store that had the drug problem happened to be the manager. But he was turned in by one of the guys. He had seen something being dishonest and reported it.

And this fellow took an interest because he knew that that manager's theft affected his own profit-sharing check. Yeah, absolutely. That was an initial part of the question when he called me on the phone was, do we have profit sharing? Yes. Now, we've talked about customer relationships, customer relations, and appointments, keeping appointments. That's very important to customers. I had one just the other day.

I went in for an oil change and rotated the tires, and I didn't get my truck back when I was supposed to. And they lost a customer. I had been a steady customer. I'm gone. But that's how it works. Tell me about keeping appointments. Well, keeping appointments, first of all, you have the choice from the beginning. And we try to give yourself enough time that you know there's just about no chance you would miss that appointment.

And what I'm saying is sometimes some people would say, I can get you out in 15 minutes and that would be such a tight deal. How about tell them it's 25 to 30 minutes and give yourself a few minutes that if something doesn't go right, you can still meet the deadline. So deadlines to people are so important. A lot of people are on a tight schedule. And when they drop something off, and I could give you numerous experiences, I learned that sort of thing, how important that was. Yeah.

Well, you've been listening to Profit Sharing in the Real World with Dick Erickson talking about his concept of being an ideal leech. Dick Erickson's book of the same name, Profit Sharing in the Real World, is available at Amazon.com. If you have a question for Dick to address in a future podcast, or if you have a story about how you've seen profit sharing work in the real world, please send an email to me, Danny Murphy.

The address is Danny at successstory.biz. That's successstory, completely spelled out in the middle. Thank you for listening.